Narayan Tripathi, who joined BJP in the presence of state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at a function in Satna, is the third MLA from Congress to join BJP after Sanjay Pathak and Dinesh Ahirwar.

The Maihar MLA said he left Congress as he was being neglected by the party. Tripathi was earlier with Samajwadi Party and later joined Congress and contested the 2013 Assembly polls from Maihar.

During Assembly polls, sitting Congress MP from Hoshangabad, Rao Uday Pratap Singh joined BJP as he was not happy with the ticket distribution process.

Congress suffered a major jolt when its Lok Sabha candidate from Bhind seat, Dr Bhagirath Prasad last month joined BJP a day after he was declared as party (Congress) nominee from that seat.

Later, it suffered another setback when it's sitting MLA from Vijayragogarh seat Sanjay Pathak joined BJP in protest against ticket not being allotted to a local candidate from Khajuraho seat. Besides, MLA Dinesh Ahirwar from Jatara seat in Tikamgarh district also quit the party to join BJP.

Notably, Tripathi had campaigned with Ajay Singh till a day before joining BJP. He also took part in campaigning with Union minister Rajiv Shukla and Bollywood actress Amisha Patel two days back in full public glare.